Given that he's a Stanford grad with an approach to baseball that dovetails more than a little bit -- though not completely -- with mine, I find myself rooting for 35-year-old Arizona manager A.J. Hinch. (Against everyone but the Dodgers,...

The field for this fall's playoffs might be far different if Josh Byrnes, then the Diamondbacks general manager, hadn't approached the Yankees' Brian Cashman with an idea shortly before Thanksgiving in 2009.
What transpired next may have contributed to...